Recently in Chicken Category

It's Memorial Day Weekend and the weather is supposed to be decent, though not warm. The last of the parsnips are still available at the local farmers markets, so I present one last winter recipe.

This is another recipe that can be made with just about all local ingredients. I do recommend using salt and pepper, which I have yet to find produced locally. Originally, this recipe came from the Amateur Gourmet who took the recipe from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. I adapted it slightly.

Cider Braised Chicken with Hard Cider and Parsnips
(Adapted from Molly Stevens' All About Braising)
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons hazelnut or olive oil (optional)
• 4 thick slices of bacon (ours was from Skagit River Ranch)
• 3 pounds chicken breasts or thighs (from Rickman Gulch)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 large shallot
• 2 1/2 cups hard cider (from Rockridge Orchards)
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 1 pound parsnips

1. Prepare the ingredients by mincing the shallot, dicing the bacon, and chopping the rosemary. Peel the parsnips and cut them into sticks. Larger parsnips will have a woody core that should be discarded.
2. In a large, oven safe pan, saute the bacon until crispy. The original recipe calls for cooking the bacon in the oil, but I've found this is usually unnecessary.
3. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a paper towel lined plate. 
4. Preheat the oven to 325.
5. Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper and brown them on all sides in the same pan over medium-high heat. If you are using skin-on chicken pieces, brown the skin side first until crispy.
6. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate and set aside.
7. Add the shallot and saute, stirring often to prevent burning. Add 2 cups of the hard cider and deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.
8. Boil and reduce the cider to approximately 1/2 cup, about 10-15 minutes.
9. Add the rosemary and the last 1/2 cup of cider and reduce again until there is about 3/4 cup of liquid left in the pan.
10. Add the parsnips and some salt and pepper. Crumble the bacon over the parsnips and then add the chicken. If you're using skin-on chicken, the pieces should be skin side down.
11. Place a piece of parchment paper over the pan and cover with a lid. Bake for 25 minutes.
12. Turn the chicken pieces and make sure the liquid isn't boiling too rapidly. If it is at a rolling boil, turn the oven down 10-15 degrees.
13. Bake for another 20-25 minutes until the thickest chicken piece is done and the parsnips are fork tender.
14. Remove the chicken and transfer the pan back to the stove. Over medium-high heat, boil the sauce for another minute or two to thicken it slightly.
15. Plate the chicken and arrange the parsnips and sauce over it.

Patricia's Notes: I don't usually use chicken with the skin for this recipe. It adds just a bit more fat than I'd like and the recipe really doesn't need it. I do often use chicken thighs as they are a bit better suited to long, slow cooking, although breasts work just fine. The parsnips absorb the sweet tang of the cider and the saltiness of the bacon. The chicken should be practically falling apart by the time the dish is done.

I've been on a bit of an apricot kick lately. We've had apricot biscotti, this recipe, and stuffed chicken with apricots and goat cheese (see the Examiner site for that recipe later this week).

This recipe was adapted from Crispy Apricot Pork Chops that I blogged for the Examiner yesterday. I just wasn't thrilled with how the recipe turned out with pork, so we tried it with chicken. It was fantastic. I run hot and cold with pork (at least pork in a non-sausage or non-bacon form) and so having the option to use chicken is very helpful.

The recipe is from a new cookbook we bought at Costco a few weeks ago. Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. It's a cookbook from the Martha Stewart collection, and while I'm definitely no Martha (in fact I usually shy away from anything Martha related), I have to admit that this cookbook hasn't steered us wrong yet. What I love about the cookbook is that it tells you exactly how long a recipe takes to prep and to cook. As an added bonus, every recipe has a full color picture along with it and the pictures actually aren't that far off from what the food looks like!

The original recipe called for apricot jam, but I prefer to use Apricot Yum from Pipitone Farms. They have an interesting little fact on their jars of Yum. In order to be called Jam, a product must have 50% sugar! That's an amazing amount of sugar. Since well grown ripe apricots are incredibly sweet, it is a shame to add all that sugar to it. Apricot Yum does not have all that added sugar. In fact, it doesn't have any, making it much better for John.

Crispy Apricot Chicken from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

• 1 Tbsp oil of your choice
• 2 slices crusty bread
• 4 chicken breasts
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 Tbsp Apricot Yum (Pipitone Farms)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 and start your prep work. Tear the bread into large pieces and put the pieces in a food processor. Pulse until the bread now resembles large crumbs. The largest crumbs should be no larger than your fingernail.
2. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil into the crumbs and pulse a couple more times to moisten the crumbs. You're aiming for about 1-1.5 cups of crumbs.
3. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
4. Put a little oil on a baking sheet.
5. Lay the chicken breasts on the baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.
6. Spread 1 tsp of apricot yum on each breast. Top with breadcrumbs and pat gently so the crumbs stick.
7. Bake about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Serve.

Patricia's Notes: This was incredibly tasty. Using the apricot yum rather than apricot jam imparted a very strong fruit flavor to the chicken. We used a lot more yum than the recipe called for, and that wasn't a bad idea. The crispy bread crumbs were fantastic and I think the added texture was what made the recipe so perfect. The dish even reheats well in the microwave or oven.

We try to eat as local as possible. With the exception of our coffee (and associated fixings like Stevia drops and soy milk), salt, sugar, orange juice, and some spices, just about everything else we eat is local. Even most of our flour is local. But sometimes a recipe just calls to us and we knowingly seek out a decidedly non-local ingredient. I'm not proud of it, but my general opinion is that the occasional far flown fruit or vegetable is probably all right.

So tonight's recipe was Hot Mango Chicken. This is not a quick recipe. It's not overly time consuming either, as long as you have ginger-garlic paste pre-made.

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken breasts
• 1 onion
• 2 mangos
• 2 red chili peppers
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste **
• 1/4 teaspoon tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander

Directions

This is one of the recipes where prep work is best done all at once. It'll make the rest of the recipe go a lot easier.

Peel and dice the mango. Slice the onion. Cube the chicken breasts. Slice the bell pepper. Mince the red chili peppers.

To a large wok, over medium high heat, add about a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Add the onion, minced chili peppers, and ginger garlic paste. Saute until the onions are browning.

Add the chicken, spices, and bell pepper. Cook until the chicken is done. For us, this took about 15 minutes.

Add the mango and about 1/4 cup of water. Cook for about 5 minutes.

We served this over about half a cup of emmer.

 

** Now, if you can't find ginger garlic paste at the store, like we couldn't, you can make your own. It's very simple, just a little tome consuming. Peel 6 oz of garlic and 6 oz of ginger. Slice the ginger into chunks. Process in a food processor until it forms a paste. (The time consuming part is peeling everything).

 

Roast chicken is tricky.

It isn't that it's particularly hard to cook, or even hard to find a recipe.

What's hard is waiting.  You don't just pull out a frozen bird from the freezer (well, ok, of course you do... you don't pull a frozen bird out of the washing machine... sheesh, you're as bad as I am, jumping on a poorly worded phrase before it's even done... which I should finish now..) and put it right in the oven.  It takes time.  For instance, our completely frozen chicken was still half frozen after a night in the fridge.  And was still frozen on the inside after a few hours on the counter.

You can't just get in the mood for a roast chicken and have it that night.  Not without external forces.  Or, y'know, going and buying one fresh (which should be considered 'external forces').

So, we knew we wanted a roast chicken, and we (mostly) got it defrosted in time... All that was needed was a recipe.

A leftover from the Anniversary meal, I still had a healthy amount of fresh thyme.  And I had hankering for balsamic.  So, to google!

I did a little search for 'balsamic roast chicken thyme' which led me to Roast Chicken and Potatoes with Balsamic-Black Pepper Sauce.

I'll lay out the recipe with pictures in a minute, but, first I want to talk about the results.

It wasn't bad.  It wasn't great.  I'd make the potatoes again, just cut them thinner so they'll crisp better.  And I'd make the gravy again.  The chicken was moist, but it just wasn't... it wasn't what I wanted.

The skin was crispy, but, all it is is salt and peppered.  I wanted, I guess, something more glazed, which, in retrospect, I really should have added to the Google search and I might have found this.  But I can just do that next time.  Lets look at the ingredients:

9 tablespoons olive oil - Organic
3/4 cup chopped shallots - Organic, Local
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried - Fresh, Organic, Local
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth - Organic, Local, Home Made[1]
1 3/4 cups beef stock or canned beef broth - Organic, Local, Home Made[1]
2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar - Organic
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 pounds large red potatoes (about 6), each cut lengthwise into 1-inch wedges - Organic, Local

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped garlic - Organic, Local
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary - Semi-Organic, Very Local[4]

1 5- to 5 1/4-pound fryer chicken, halved lengthwise, backbone removed - Organic, Local

Now, first, let me just say... 'backbone removed' is a lot harder than it sounds.  It sounded super easy to me.  Until I tried.  Part of it might very easily be the knife.  A meat cleaver will likely work alot better than my extreeeeemely sharp chef's knife[5], but still..

What's really sort of fun about this recipe is how all over the place you feel as you make it, but it all just comes together in the end.

First, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan on medium high and cook the shallots and thyme until the shallots start to cook down. 

Add the flour and stir for a minute.

Gradually whisk in the stocks.  Let me tell you, when the majority of your stock is in popsicle form, there isn't a 'gradually' involved, so, much like a gas pump says to 'quickly' remove your card, it isn't a necessity.

Boil it until it is reduced to 1.5 cups, stirring occasionally.  The recipe says 20 minutes.  I kept mine going the entire time I did the rest of the recipe and it looked fine.  At the end, add the balsamic and pepper.  You can make the sauce ahead of time, cover it and refrigerate it, if you want.

Put a rack in the upper third and a rack in the lower third of your oven.  Preheat it to 375F.  Toss the potatoes, 1 tablespoon of oil, the garlic and the rosemary in a large bowl.  Put them on a sheet, rounded side down, sprinkle with salt and pepper, set aside. 

I think it's so pretty, it calls for an extreme close up.

 

EXTREME POTATO CLOSE UP!!!!!!!!

That's pretty.

But see?  Just doing all this stuff that seems to be completely and totally unrelated... But it's all downhill from here.

Salt and pepper the chicken.  Throw it in an oven proof skillet with the rest of the oil.  And, if you have a skillet big enough to hold two chicken halves flat *and* fit in your oven... wow.  I'm amazed.  I had to use two cast iron pans, and even then, they both didn't quite fit in the oven directly on the rack.  I had to lift them an inch so they'd not get stuck on the raised lip at the back of the rack.  But anyways, where was I?  Chicken + Oil -> Skillet/medium high heat (that would be chicken and oil in skillet, over medium high heat), skin side down.  Cook until very brown (some 15 minutes), flip and cook for 5 more minutes. 

Put the potatoes on the top rack, put the skillet(s) on the bottom rack, cook for 45 minutes or so.  Rewarm the sauce if need be (theoretically, you could *start* your sauce now and have it all come together at the end, assume you ever get a boil reduction to work as quick as recipes say they should) and cut the chicken in half yet again (if you want, we didn't).  Why don't you do that *before* cooking?  Beats me.

Arrange chicken on a platter with potatoes, serve with sauce on the side.

And again, it's tasty, but it could be so much better.  I recommend doing something with maybe throwing some carrots and other root veggies in the pan with the chicken.  Maybe a little rub or sauce on the chicken too.

Heck, I bet you could find a way to cook the potatoes *in* the cast iron skillets, with the chicken all cut into pieces already and throw those on the table and have an ultra-rustic, super pretty food service.

[1] Yes, really.  We make our own stocks.  Don't you[2]?  =)  I highly recommend Ball's Plastic Freezer Jars.  They make a 16oz version too, so, you may want to get some of each.  You might want to get some of the really small Ziploc containers too, so that you can have 1 cup, 2 cup and 1/2 cup frozen stock-sicles handy for all your cooking needs.

[2]  You have any recipes to share?  Wait, you mean you don't make your own stock[3]?

[3]  You don't?  Would you like to?  We have two or three excellent stock recipes to share. 

[4] As in 'I pulled it off the plant outside the back door.'

[5] No human blood was spilled in the making of this recipe.

Two years, two pounds of M and Ms.  I knew Patricia would be eating a bit of chocolate at work, a nice mix of almond, peanut butter and the good old fashioned chocolate, so I figured I'd make a nice little dinner for her as a congratulations.

A few weeks back, at the gym, I was watching the Today Show.  Not by choice, just enforced by what's on the wall.  They had a chef on whom I had never heard of named Jonathan Waxman making Turkey Milanese.  Well, hey, I thought, I could make that for her.

Then I actually read the recipe.

Ok, so, that's out.  Too hard for me.  Tho the whole 'beating a piece of meat flat' (hey, you, stop sniggering) appealed to me, so, I decided on a fried chicken.

But I still needed sides.  We had some potato parmesan bread, so bread was taken care of.  We had some left over potatoes, so I went for the old smashed potato stand-by.

I wanted to make more, and not just stuff I've made before.

Well, there was this brown buttered corn I saw over on Orangette.  I wasn't entirely sure I would be able to do it, but... what the heck.

So, long story short, I made this:

Now, short story long....

Over there at 9 o'clock, you have the potato parmesan bread, and at 3 o'clock, the roasted smashed potatoes.

Lets talk a little bit about the corn at 6 o'clock, and then we can get to the main course, that gorgeous hunk of meat.

The corn was a beautifully simple recipe, which you already know if you looked at the recipe.

Basically, chop the kernels off three ears of corn, and milk the cob a bit.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brown some butter with a few sprigs of thyme (lemon thyme was recommended, but I couldn't find any).  This was the part I had a problem with.  I wasn't sure I could actually brown butter.  I mean, it sounds easy enough, melt it, and then cook it.  But the pan I used was big enough that 4 tablespoons of butter just sorta covered the bottom, not to much depth.  

 

 

Then, once it's browned, throw the corn in and some coarse salt, mix it up, and cover.  Says to cook it at medium low, but it was barely cooking..  So I cranked it up a bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

Once it's tender, pull out the sprigs and you're done.

What would I do differently?

Well, first, a smaller pot.

Next, a couple tablespoons more butter.  Admittedly, the smaller pan might make it better.

After that, I won't cut so close to the cob.  I got some of the tough cob-tastic bits with the corn.  That also cut down on the amount of milk the cob produced.

And lastly, I'll actually put in the salt.  Dummy that I am, I forgot that step.   I didn't do the parsley garnish either, but, I'm not a garnishy sorta guy.

Now, lets pull the ingredient list:

Corn, 3 ears.  Local, non-organic. 

Butter, 4 Tblspn.  Non-Local,, organic.

Thyme, 3 sprigs.  Local, organic.

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

And now... the main event.

Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken Milanese

Milanese means flat, right?  Right?  No?  Well.. fine.

Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken A-Cup

I'll be honest, I was flying solo on this.  No real recipe.

I got two large chicken breasts and proceeded to flatten them.  Personally I put it between some wax paper and banged it with a rolling pin until it was flat. I'm not sure it was the right way to do it, but it worked.  More or less.

Salt and pepper both sides.

 

 

 

Pour some buttermilk into a Pyrex pan.  Salt and pepper that and lay in one of the flattened breasts.  Pour in more buttermilk to cover.  Put in second breast.  Pour in more buttermilk to cover.  Throw in fridge for... well, lets say two or three hours.  At least, that's what I did.

While that's going, it's time to mix up some dredge stuff.  I went a little hog-wild.

I threw in some panko with some italian seasoned bread crumbs to fill it out.  Then, I added smoked paprika, chili powder, mexican oregan, a little dash of garlic granules and, for some odd reason, Stubb's Rosemary Ginger Spice Rub.

Pull the chicken out, dredge in the mix.

Olive oil up a big, flat pan, and throw in the breast, one at a time (unless you have a *really* big pan).

 

 

 

 

 

I could have cooked it for about 30 seconds less.  The chicken was done, it was, to a point, juicy, but the coating was a little burned.

But it was tasty.  It was probably a little too much, I should have stuck to one major flavor, with a little kick of something spicy, but, what is important.... I liked it.  She liked it.  And, we had enough for two meals.  I'd try to write up this one's ingredients, but, honestly, I winged it too much to actually know what I did.

Isn't it? Don't you just want to reach in there and pull off a wing and start munching? 

John experimented this week with a recipe of his own creation. I have to say, it was very successful, if not slightly odd. But then again, he's slightly odd, so it seems to fit.

Here's his recipe.

Ingredients * = local, & = organic

• 1 whole chicken *&
• 1 can beer
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Tom Douglas Peri Peri rub
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• A few shakes of hot pepper flakes
• A few pinches of coarse black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter *&
• Agave nectar
• Bourbon
• Sprig of rosemary *

Directions

1. Take your beer (a nice Belgian would work well here, though probably many beers would be just fine), and take a sip. Then pour about half of the can in a bowl and soak some wood chips in it for at least an hour.
2. Take the rest of the beer still in the can and place it in your Beer Can Chicken Roaster. Cut a long sprig of rosemary and place it in the beer can.
3. Mix the spices and melted butter together in a bowl to form a paste. Add some agave nectar and bourbon. You'll have to approximate the amounts so that you still have a paste that can be brushed onto the bird.
4. Add the soaked wood chips to the smoker box and heat up the grill. You want the grill to come up to temperature and the smoker box to start... well... smoking.
5. Arrange the chicken on the roaster and brush with your paste.
6. Place on the grill and cook for about 1.5 hours or until the chicken comes up to temperature.
7. Take the chicken off the grill and let it rest for a few minutes before cutting and enjoying.

This chicken was excellent. Though oddly, we both thought that it smelled a lot like pizza. I think it was the combination of the rosemary and the Peri Peri rub. And really... who doesn't like pizza?

 

We're trying to eat healthy. High cholesterol and a few extra pounds plague both of us, and so when we find a way to have crispy crunchy chicken without deep frying it (or buying it deep fried), it makes us both happy.

This recipe intrigued us, so we set about to make it our own.

Ingredients: * = local, & = organic

• 2 1/2 pounds chicken breasts &
• 1/2 cup buttermilk &
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic *&
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/2 cup Emmer flour *&
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• Olive oil &

Unfortunately, we didn't do very well using local ingredients for this recipe. Once our spices grow up a bit, we'll be able to use them instead of the bottled stuff.

Directions

1. Mix the buttermilk, mustard, garlic, and hot sauce in a shallow dish until thoroughly blended.
2. Place the chicken in the dish and turn to coat well.
3. Cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes or for up to 8 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 425.
5. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Set a wire rack on the cookie sheet and brush it with olive oil.
6. Combine the flour, sesame seeds, paprika, thyme, baking powder, salt and pepper in a ziplock bag.
7. Shake off the excess marinade from the chicken and place in the bag.
8. Shake the bag to coat.
9. Lay the chicken on the rack and brush with olive oil.
10. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.

Notes

The original recipe called for cooking spray. You're supposed to spray the chicken breasts with the cooking spray before baking. However, I've never really liked those cooking sprays. I'd rather use some olive oil without all the propellant. This worked just fine.

We didn't have a wire rack that we could put on a cookie sheet, so we used a glass baking dish. In order to crisp the chicken, place the glass dish in the oven with about a tablespoon of olive oil and let it come up to temperature. Then carefully slide it out and add the chicken breast.

This was quite good. I think it could have used a bit more salt, but then again, I like salt. The coating was crunchy and the chicken was still fairly moist. We will definitely make this again.

 

 

 

Are you afraid of chickens? I don't mean the squawking, feathered, alive variety, I mean the whole, ready-to-cook variety.

I was afraid of chickens. Well, to be fair, I probably would have backed slowly away from the live variety too, but for years I've been wary of cooking a whole chicken.

I can hear you now. "But... you cooked a whole turkey for Thanksgiving! How can you be afraid of chicken?"

The short answer is that I don't know. It's poultry, not four pounds of nuclear waste. The first time I tried using a whole chicken after moving to Seattle, it was a catastrophic failure. I attempted to make some sort of Orange Chicken in the crock pot. It was almost inedible. In fact, I think we threw the whole thing out. So you can imagine my trepidation when I saw this post by The Amateur Gourmet.  

The chicken was beautiful. What's more, it required only the barest minimum of preparation. What could be easier than rubbing some spices over a bird and throwing it in the oven?

The answer? Not much.

The recipe called for 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds, 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper. We rubbed the spices over the chicken and stuck it in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees.

The result? Well, here's the visual proof. (Since this is a local blog, I should mention that the mug in the background is from Fuel Coffee. They're a great local coffee shop with two locations. If you're in Seattle, I highly recommend them.)

So, on to the local part of our program.

The chicken came from Sea Breeze Farms. We've been thinking about trying their chicken for a few months. We picked it up at the University District Farmer's Market. It was fresh (not frozen) and weighed about 4 pounds. It was a little pricey ($20), but well worth it for a cage free, organic bird. Since it was fresh, we could buy it and cook it the same day. That was an added bonus.

If I've held your interest this far, you know that the chicken was easy, appears very appetizing, and local. But how did it taste?

I have a confession to make. I don't like chicken skin. This isn't all bad, as chicken skin is primarily fat. I don't much care for the taste, and I hate the fatty mouth feel. About the only time I like it is on Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love the very edges of the crunchy fried skin. Seriously, don't get in between me and the edges of KFC chicken skin. But otherwise? Not-so-much. Since this chicken looked so crispy and tasty, I had to try a bit of skin. It was good. I only had about half the top skin on the drumstick, but it was crispy, salty, and relatively thin (so not overly fatty).

The rest of the chicken was excellent. The meat was moist and had a decent texture. The drumstick was very good, but the breast was better. Of course, I've always liked light meat over dark, but even the dark meat on this bird was very good.

We'll definitely make this again.